I returned from Haiti just a couple of days before a powerful earthquake
rocked the country on January 12. I was in Haiti on a solidarity
delegation to document human rights abuses by the United Nations
Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) and to observe preparations for
February's legislative elections. We met with social movement activists
who continue to fight in the face of overwhelming odds to rebuild their
country.

Many people have observed that the Haitian earthquake was more a
political disaster than a natural one. The similarly powerful 1989 Loma
Prieta earthquake in California killed 63 people, while the death toll
in Haiti appears as if it may soar over 100,000. Our experiences in the
country confirmed that the solution to Haiti's problem is political in
nature.

Two hundred some years ago Haiti was the richest colony in the world,
but today it is the poorest and most unequal country in the Americas. A
successful slave revolt in 1804 defeated the French planter class, but
the only other independent country in the Americas, the United States,
refused to welcome a Black Republic because of the powerful example it
set for marginalized and oppressed people everywhere. The French
demanded a 150 million franc payment from the Haitians for losing their
prized pearl of the Antilles. Haiti made the payment, strangling any
possibility for development, and sacrificing its future so as not to be
seen as an international pariah.

In Haiti, we heard from grassroots activists who complained that large
international aid agencies collect funds for administrative salaries,
vehicles, and office support, but little of this money filters down to
the people who need it the most. Dumping cheap rice on the country has
destroyed the local agricultural economy. Haiti has a desperate
short-term need for assistance, but this aid must be funneled through
groups like Doctors Without Borders (http://doctorswithoutborders.org/)
and Partners in Health (http://www.pih.org/) that have a track record
and distribution networks necessary in place to make proper use of the aid.

The longer term solution, however, is political. Already conservative
pundits are proclaiming that the earthquake is an opportunity to remake
the country along neoliberal lines. But the extraction of natural
resources, creation of low-wage jobs, and privatization of government
functions are factors that have left Haiti incapable of responding to a
natural disaster.

Haiti has never recovered from the ostracization it faced from the
French and United States governments at independence, and ongoing
international policies appear to be designed to sink the country deeper
into debt. The U.S. marines occupied the country from 1915 to 1934, and
the earthquake seems to provide a convenient excuse for the United
States once again to land military troops and reassert its imperial
control over the country.

In 2004, the French, United States, and Canadian governments removed
popular leftist president Jean Bertrand Aristide who promised to shift
resources to the most marginalized sectors of society. They have
insisted that the current government ban his Fanmi Lavalas, the largest
political party in Haiti, from participating in electoral contests.

The solution to Haiti's problems is to allow the country to develop its
own economy and political system without constant outside intervention.
Otherwise, Haiti's next natural calamity will be worse than this one,
and the country will continue to sink deeper into poverty, inequality,
and social exclusion.